Varmar Resort Kovalam

... your feet more than your shoes. It is also inconvenient as the stones and dirt get quite hot under the Indian sun, so is therefore a little bit painful. Well, it isn't really dirt, it is actually sand. I (Aman) thought the dining hall was pretty cool as 4000 people got fed for free, every meal, at the 2 level hall. Eric and Janpal got some cool pictures. Mommy: I thought it was neat ...

... Then we were given prasad. At first we thought it was just a sweet dessert but later found out it is a material substance that is first offered to the deities (the statues on stage) and then eaten by us. The prasad has the blessing of the gods residing within it. We were given sesame balls, jelly noodles, grapes, dates, nuts, goblin granola, squashed banana and some other unidentifiable mixtures as prasad. Generally we'd wait to see what the day's offering was ...

... nd rode it like * w*rrior. There *re rip currents *ll *long the stretch of be*ch here *nd lifegu*rds p*trol it. The other thing they do is blow whistles to stop the Indi*n loc*ls from entering the w*ter in the foreigners section of the be*ch. It is *n *bsolute outr*ge. It's like * bl*ck / white segreg*tion *nd m*de me feel very emb*r*ssed to be on their be*ch.Yes, i underst*nd th*t some of the loc*ls st*re *t the bikini cl*d westerner l*dies bec*use Indi*n women don ...

... then we walked back. This happens every morning and evening. Half hour silent meditation (not usually a walk), chanting and singing, and then concluding prayers chants and Hindu ritual. In the morning this goes from 6 am until around 7 30 when we have tea. Then at 8 am we have a 2 hour yoga class which is everything I had hoped. I have done very very very litle yoga before (like I can count on two hands the number of times I've tried yoga) and I find the practice so cathartic ...

... wel inbeelden wat het gevolg is wanneer ik zonder sari (maar naar westerse normen heel bedekt), de zee inga. Minstens 70 man die staat te gapen en foto's staan te trekken. Je ongemakkelijk voelen in India? Neeeeuuuuuhhh... - mannen dragen hier doorgaans lunghi's, een stuk stof die rondom wordt gedrapeerd, als een soort enkellange rok. Geregeld lopen ze rond terwijl ze de hoeken hiervan vasthouden. Vaak ontdubbelen ze die tot korte rok. Heel korte rok. Ik ...

... or just a glimpse so I can see exactly what's escaping me. This knowledge is a deep blue sea, extending to eternity Arjuna on his chariot is what I want to be Fighting for my freedom and positivity Volunteered slavery is what I had before now I search for knowledge to open up new doors Once the trip is started, it's best for it to end I can't go back to the world that I was living in I may be weak, I may fall down, but I know I want to try All of ...

HI Everyone! Amy and I are still doing well and having a great time. We stayed in Vagaor Beach for three nights. It was so much fun there. We hit the beach everyday. This is the low season because it is so hot but there were still a lot of people on the beach. Even the Arabian Sea was hot. I have never swam in water that was actually warm! We met a lot of people and went out at night and to some good restaurants and bars. It was a lot of fun. Yesterday morning we hiked up ...

... I feel 3 months is quite a long time to volunteer with the same routine. So tomorrow I'm going to the funkily-named Thiruvananthamparam right at the bottom of Kerala, a state further down South. The journey is 16 hours and my first night train alone so a little scary, but I am armed with peanut butter sandwiches, pepsi, processed cheese slices, some good books and a cinnamon roll from one of the many 'German bakeries' which can ...

The drive to Kerala from Madurai took me past the absolutely hugest wind farm I've ever seen. There were thousands of windmills for at least 30km on both sides of the road as far as I could see. And it was sooooo weird to see them towering above a typically Indian landscape of palm trees, bullock carts, goats, paddy fields and little one road villages. They were like alien invaders. Anyway, got to Kovalam on ...

... to gawp, seemingly from nowhere (my mind reads the word now-here). After cheese on toast with HP sauce (possibly the last chance of English food for a while) we returned to find that our 'hotel' was mostly rubble after the reception and restaurant had been pulled down. Our room survived the night and we promptly left the following morning for the 18 hour train journey to Trivandrum which, when pronounced Indian style, sounds like a machine gun.